Considering Medical Aid in Dying

Nancy Berlinger is a Senior Research Scholar at The Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute based in Garrison, NY. Her current research focuses on ethical and societal challenges arising from population aging, with special attention to dementia and to housing equity. She has led expert teams to produce ethical guidance for health care practitioners in end-of-life and pandemic conditions, including communication and deliberation concerning medical aid in dying (MAID) and related issues such as voluntary stopping of eating and drinking (VSED). She has served as an expert consultant to public deliberation concerning MAID in the UK, and on the planning committee for the National Academies’ 2018 workshop on MAID in the US. She serves on the bioethics committee of Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, and on ethics review committees for unrepresented patients at Montefiore. She founded and directs The Hastings Center’s Sadler Scholars Program for doctoral students from underrepresented minority communities.

Dr. Gaind is a Professor, Governor and member of the University Executive at the University of Toronto and Chief of Psychiatry at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, one of Canada’s top medical academic institutions. His clinical expertise is psycho-oncology. He is an Executive Member and Medical Practice & Tariff Chair of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) Section on Psychiatry and Chair of the OMA Relativity Advisory Committee, a Past-President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, the Ontario Psychiatric Association and of PAIRO, and now President of the fledgling Society of Canadian Psychiatry and of the Ontario District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association. He represented Canada internationally as a Board Member of the World Psychiatric Association from 2017 to 2020 (and in the more distant past represented the country on Canada’s two first International Physics Olympiad teams). Dr. Gaind has been actively involved in health policy development and advocacy since residency, and has been recognized with numerous regional, provincial, national and international awards for his teaching, advocacy and impact. He has helped form health policy and engaged medical colleagues and the public to be more aware of and advocate against policies that stigmatize and discriminate against the mentally ill. As Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) policies have been evolving in Canada, Dr. Gaind has testified before numerous parliamentary and senate committees, chaired his former hospital’s MAID team, chaired the time-limited CPA Task Force on Assisted Dying, was selected to sit on the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Mental Disorders and Assisted Dying, was retained as an expert by the former Attorney General of Canada in the Quebec Truchon and the BC Lamb cases, and has spoken across the country and internationally on issues relevant to mental health and mental illness that need to be considered in any MAID framework. He believes medical experts have an obligation to help guide health policies with evidence, not just ideology, and to consider the impacts of public policies on the most marginalized to avoid perpetuating policies of privilege.